So after all our hard core travelling & mountaineering, we finally made it to the beach! We've been beach hopping along the South Coast for the last few days & getting some much needed R&R.

The beaches here are beautiful, but sadly they still bare the scars of the Tsunami. Sri Lanka was one of the worst hit countries; all along the coast there are the crumbling remains of houses, broken trees & boats permanently stuck inland. Over 30,000 people lost their lives here, most of whom are buried along the coast road, which is lined with gravestones remembering the dead. Its only when you come to somewhere like this, that you can really understand the enormity of what happened. It's a poignant reminder of the power of the Ocean. On a positive note, the country has received a lot of help from overseas charities, all the public services have been rebuilt including schools, post offices, etc, each baring a plaque stating which charitable organisation was responsible. The rebuilding of homes & businesses has been a little slower, not everyone got help & a lot had to apply for bankloans as the government didn't do much in the way of help. Despite this the people are still smiling & there are some extraordinary tales of survival; the hotel we stayed in Unawatuna was completely destroyed by the waves, there are photos in the restaurant showing the scale of the damage. I was sure that everyone in there must have died, but fortunately, all but one escaped unharmed, when the first wave came there was a 10 minute gap before the next wave, so they realised they needed to run & all the staff & guests got out of there as quick as they could, this quick thinking saved their lives. But it wasnt the same for so many others, I spoke to people who'd lost many friends & family members. It was so wierd sitting there in paradise & thinking that just a few years ago, all this was wiped out in a flash. It really makes you appreciate that life is short...

For the last few nights we have been kept awake by midnight visitors, first it was rats on the roof & then we moved & it was cockroaches! I'm so tired & its raining now too, so I think we are going to treat ourself to one last night in the Vintage Hotel in Colombo - they also do High Tea, so we can live like high society for one last night! Then we're off to Bangkok & in true Vish style, he has taken it upon himself to book us into a design hotel in Siam Sq, so we'll have one night living like cool Thai kids before returning to backpacker land on the Koh San & starting our SE Asia adventure. Sri Lanka has been so quiet, there are hardly any travellers or tourists here, so I'm looking forward to getting back on the traveller trail & making some NBFs!